Captain Faf du Plessis was quite clear in his assessment that South Africa fell at least 10 runs short of a defendable total against West Indies at Nagpur

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Nagpur 25-Mar-2016It was an over sent from the heavens. Three googlies from Imran Tahir and nearly three wickets.Marlon Samuels looked to drive the first one through the covers. The ball turned into him and forced him to hit it straighter, and in the air. Tahir got his left hand to the ball but couldn’t wrap his fingers around it.Andre Russell looked to slog the second beyond wide long-on, but ended up hitting it squarer than intended and deep midwicket ran a few steps to his left to take a simple catch. Darren Sammy simply didn’t pick the last one. It hung deliciously over his eyeline, dipped wickedly, and turned through the gap between front pad and airy cover drive to hit the top of middle stump.Two wickets taken, only one run conceded and West Indies were 100 for 6 after 17 overs. The over might have turned the match South Africa’s way had West Indies been chasing 140. But they were only chasing 123 and still only needed a perfectly gettable 23 off the last three overs.After the match, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis was quite clear in his assessment that his side fell at least 10 runs short of a defendable total.”The batting today was the difference between us winning and losing,” he said. “We needed to get to 130-135 to have a par score. I thought we were 10 runs short, definitely.”On the eve of the match, du Plessis had counted adaptability and “being smart in decision-making” among the strengths of his batting side. He had hoped these qualities would make the difference against a West Indies batting unit reliant on power hitting, given the large outfield and the expectation that the pitch would provide turn.The pitch met du Plessis’ expectations: it was slow, low and offered a fair degree of turn, though not to the extent seen during the India-New Zealand match on March 15. West Indies’ batting proved to be as reliant on big hitting as du Plessis had noted and, as a consequence, was not at its best with the ball not coming on to the bat.But before they could expose West Indies’ frailties with the bat, South Africa had failed to demonstrate the adaptability and smart decision-making du Plessis had spoken of. After the match, he conceded that they had been “frantic” at the start of their innings, when they lost their three most experienced batsmen to what he called “soft” dismissals: Hashim Amla to a run out, du Plessis himself to a spooned catch taken at mid-off, and AB de Villiers to a shot played across the line. Rilee Rossouw also slashed a wide delivery straight to point.”Obviously batting first, the thinking was that it wasn’t going to be the same wicket as Mumbai, doesn’t take a brain surgeon to look at that. But those decisions you make when you’re batting, we didn’t make them tonight,” du Plessis said. “The run-out, caught at mid-off, and Rilee – our first three wickets for me were all soft wickets. AB’s wicket was also a soft wicket.”They didn’t bowl us out tonight. We were put in situations where we needed to be smarter and we weren’t. If you don’t do those things you’re not going to bat as well as you can. We went into this game thinking that West Indies is a power hitting team and we rely on being smart. Ten or 15 runs more, I think we could have won the game. They don’t rely on touch, on getting ones and twos, whereas this ground is spot on for that. That’s where we lost the game.”Du Plessis said Quinton de Kock and David Wiese – who added 50 for the sixth wicket – showed South Africa how they could have played on the Nagpur surface, but only after the top order had already collapsed.Hashim Amla’s run out was the first of several soft dismissals according to South Africa captain Faf du Plessis•IDI/Getty Images

“I thought we were very frantic there, up front,” du Plessis said. “Obviously you never want to start your innings with a run out, that just puts you back, puts it all, puts everything in a bit of a negative mode, because you’re giving the opposition a wicket, but to lose three or four wickets so quickly, that broke our momentum in the innings, and that was the difference between us [scoring 122 and] getting to 140.”The guys batted beautifully in the middle, David Wiese once again as a guy that’s coming in today, had a great game, and I can’t fault the bowlers today. Obviously there’s been a lot of pressure and a lot of stuff said about our bowling unit over the last two weeks or so, but they fought really hard today.”Especially in a big game like today, you want your big players to stand up, and myself, Hashim and AB, one of us needed to anchor the innings and be there. Quinton played an amazing innings, a mature innings, that’s something he hasn’t done a lot. Normally he plays his aggressive game and he’s very free. Today the shoe was on the other foot and he adapted brilliantly. And he showed the rest of the batting unit what it is like to adapt on that wicket.”Despite all this, South Africa’s bowlers kept them in the game till the last over. Tahir took those two wickets in the 17th and Wiese, mixing up his pace brilliantly, conceded only three runs in the 18th over. It took a slash and a thick edge past the keeper from Marlon Samuels, which streaked to the third man boundary in the 19th off Chris Morris, to bring the equation down to 10 off eight balls.Du Plessis said the edged four made him think “oh my word, it’s not meant to be for us today”, but he was quick to add that West Indies had earned their luck by staying “half a step” ahead of South Africa right through the game.”We’re not playing close to how good we are or can be, and that’s frustrating,” du Plessis said. “We want to be better, and unfortunately we’re not producing the goods on the day. As I said, you need a bit of luck but also you make your own luck, and I feel if you win those small moments in the game, generally the luck goes your way.”That’s why it didn’t go our way tonight, because we were just half a step behind West Indies all the time. But they’re playing great cricket and that’s why it’s going for them. They’re a confident team and things will fall their way, because you almost earn that luck, and they deserve it.”The win put West Indies through to the semi-finals and left South Africa hanging from edge of the precipice. They will need Sri Lanka to beat England, and then need to beat Sri Lanka themselves, to have any chance of progressing. It was not the situation du Plessis had expected his team to be in at this stage of the competition.”[I’m] disappointed, because I had strong hopes of winning the tournament, and now we’re hoping for other performances to go our way,” he said. “We’ll obviously be rooting for some opposition to try and do us a favour, but if it doesn’t happen like that, there’s no excuses.”

A first century of the season for James Hildreth, that great, overlooked west country run-gatherer, provided Somerset supporters with something to clutch to their breasts on what was an otherwise trying day

Alan Gardner at Taunton03-May-2016
ScorecardJames Anderson took three wickets in an over to put Lancashire in control•Getty Images

A first century of the season for James Hildreth, that great, overlooked west country run-gatherer, provided Somerset supporters with something to clutch to their breasts on what was an otherwise trying day. Nearly three games in and this is beginning to look like another difficult Championship campaign. Hildreth was last out for 130 and, facing a first-innings deficit of 180, Somerset were duly asked to bat again.Lancashire have played the percentages well throughout this match and their performance in the field, with plenty of runs on the board, was textbook. Three wickets in five balls after lunch from James Anderson was like a punch to gut of the Somerset innings and although they didn’t quite double over and sink to the ground – mainly thanks to an eighth-wicket stand of 139 between Hildreth and Jamie Overton – there was enough impetus to Lancashire’s efforts to give them a reasonable chance of pulling off victory on the final day.The surface for Taunton’s first home game of the season has played more like one prepared in August. Safer to bat on than a bank vault for the first two days, Lancashire’s attack then produced the tools needed to crack it open: Anderson, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jarvis bowling in bursts as Simon Kerrigan wheeled away from the River End. The grubbing delivery from Jarvis that wrecked Craig Overton’s stumps suggested things could get even more difficult for Somerset.They would have been far worse were it not for Hildreth’s 36th first-class hundred. The time has passed when he was mentioned among England possibles – there are still questions about how the Test XI will line up against Sri Lanka later this month, yet Hildreth has not entered the debate – but he drove, cut and pulled smoothly during an innings that only offered one chance, a sharp one to midwicket that Alviro Petersen put down diving to his right.

Division One ‘closest thing to Tests’ – Wagner

Neil Wagner, Lancashire’s New Zealand international bowler, has praised the quality of competition in the top tier of the Championship. After a hard-fought day in which Lancashire gave themselves a chance of making it back-to-back wins on their return to Division One, Wagner said the changes to regulations that have seen better-quality pitches produced around the country meant that it was the next best thing to playing at Test level.
“Division One county cricket is the closest you get to Test cricket,” he said. “I think the quality of cricket and cricketers is that good, it’s all-round tough cricket that you have to play – especially with the wickets as they are at the moment, they are quite flat, quite tough and hard graft. As bowlers it’s quite testing and that’s where your big characters have got to stand up.”

Keeping him company for much of the afternoon was Jamie Overton, who has a reputation as a lusty hitter but, despite getting off the mark with a pulled six over midwicket off Wagner, was considerably more circumspect in compiling a fourth first-class fifty, from 89 balls. He was out to his next delivery, from Wagner, who had done admirably in attempting to get his bouncer high enough to hit the 6ft 6in Overton in the head and had also seen him edge short of slip on 17.Impeded by Monday’s rain and a slow outfield, which is still bedding in after new drainage was installed, Lancashire took the best part of two days to amass 493 for 9 declared. That effectively took the win out of the equation for Somerset but the way in which they pitched headlong into a mid-afternoon collapse would have been worrying for the new captain, Chris Rogers, and director of cricket, Matthew Maynard, in his second season at the club.Somerset have found themselves similarly off the pace in opening fixtures at Chester-le-Street and The Oval, though they escaped with draws in both. The same result ought to be achievable here but it would not do much to reduce the chuntering among those meandering away down St James Street come Wednesday’s close.The situation had looked brighter in the morning, even though Marcus Trescothick departed tamely to a return catch from Jarvis’ first ball. Rogers produced his first half-century since signing for Somerset and he could walk off to a backdrop of contented applause with his side 101 for 2 at lunch. But things then quickened up rather suddenly after the interval, and not to the home crowd’s liking.Anderson, as wily with the ball as he is unsubtle in discourse with opposing batsmen, prised out Rogers after a 107-ball stay. The delivery may have stopped a little but, facing a 7-2 off-side field and Anderson bowling round the wicket, Rogers could not stop a defensive push looping to one of the catchers positioned in the covers. There was no David Saker to point to on the balcony, as Anderson did after they came up with a plan for Rogers at Trent Bridge in 2013, but it was another example of how exacting a bowler he has become.He was soon on a hat-trick, Roelof van der Merwe extending his limp run with the bat by playing all around a straight one, and although Peter Trego negotiated the delivery securely enough, he was gone two balls later, Alex Wharf slowly raising the finger to complete a car-crash slide from 102 for 2 to 102 for 5.Ryan Davies, a former England U-19s wicketkeeper with a previous first-class best of 17, twice drove Anderson sweetly down the ground – which did not pass without comment from the bowler – and played neatly enough for 45 minutes, until he decided to rush at Kerrigan and was stumped well out of his crease. Craig Overton fell shortly after and, at 150 for 7, Somerset’s chances of batting out the day seemed remote. That they were asked to have another go, with Tim Groenewald facing one final over from Anderson, only made it more galling.

Mohammad Hafeez has been ruled out of Pakistan’s skills camp which begins on May 28 at the National Cricket Academy

Umar Farooq26-May-2016Pakistan batsman Mohammad Hafeez has been ruled out of the skills camp beginning on May 28 at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, but doctors will continue to monitor his recovery from a knee injury on a weekly basis ahead of Pakistan’s tour of England which starts June 18.A fresh MRI scan on Hafeez revealed an improvement in his knee, first injured in March, but stress has been diagnosed and he may be rested for some time as a part of his continuing rehabilitation regimen. He had already missed the ongoing fitness training camp at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad.Hafeez last played for Pakistan at the World T20 in March where he sustained the knee injury after a bone contusion in his femur. He has been resting since then and undergoing extensive treatment as a part of his rehabilitation. According to the latest report, doctors advised Hafeez against any net sessions. ESPNcricinfo understands Hafeez is desperate to restart his cricket but doctors are cautious about his injury which they fear could be aggravated if he tries to push for an early return.A final call on his participation in the England Test series is expected to be taken in the next three to four days. Pakistan’s 22 probables will be cut down to a final 16-man squad at the conclusion of the skills camp. The squad will leave for England to undergo a conditioning camp in Hampshire ahead of two practice matches in Somerset and Sussex before the first Test starts July 14 at Lord’s. The selectors had named four options among the probables for the opening slots, with the inclusion of Hafeez cited as subject to fitness.

These are tough times for Hampshire and their coach, Dale Benkenstein, is trying to find a way to reinvigorate the season of Michael Carberry to aid a relegation fight

Freddie Wilde at the Ageas Bowl28-Jun-2016
ScorecardHampshire hope a move down the order can spark Michael Carberry’s form•Getty Images

There was a heavy sense of sadness about this, the flattest of days, at the Ageas Bowl. Played out in front of a smattering of barely 100 people, a crowd described by one seasoned journalist as the smallest he had seen here for at least a decade; bottom of the table, relegation-threatened Hampshire battled and blocked, nudged and nurdled and waited for the forecasted rain to fall.It is at times like these that a club needs its senior players. In Michael Carberry, Hampshire have one who stood up better than most to some of the fastest bowling in history when Mitchell Johnson ripped England apart in the 2013-14 Ashes. Shortly after that, perhaps harshly, Carberry’s international career came to an end and Dale Benkenstein, the Hampshire coach, revealed it has not been an easy adjustment for Carberry to make. This season season his average hovers around the mid-20s.As part of Hampshire’s attempt to re-motivate Carberry they have shifted him down the order to No. 4 to give him a new challenge and the management will have been pleased with the fight he showed, closing on an unbeaten 37, alongside Sean Ervine in a 52-run stand before play was halted.”We are trying to find some motivation for Carbs,” explained Benkenstein. “I think it’s tough when you don’t have England anymore. You just lose your oxygen. When you’ve had one thing as your goal and suddenly it goes, and you’ve never really thought about anything else – you’ve always wanted to play for England. I’ve seen that with a few senior players in my career as captain.””Physically and skill-wise he could play for many more years, but at this level you have got to have a real hunger to play. Especially as a batsman you have to have that hunger for runs because you are getting a year older and guys are getting faster and better and they have ambition to play for England and you tend to see guys drop off quite quickly.””We’ve found he is actually playing quite well but keeps getting out,” Benkenstein said of the move to bat him down the order. “The new ball is always tough in England and we thought maybe it’s a chance to free him up a bit and take him away from the new ball. Just changing his role gives him a bit of a mini-challenge and we are hoping that stimulates him.”Hampshire will hope Carberry can flourish in the second half of the season. Play began under a warming sun, but as the day wore on, the clouds thickened and darkened and like the looming threat of Hampshire’s relegation, they slowly closed in.When, at 3.18pm the umpires decided the light was too bad for play to continue Ervine and Carberry could hardly have left the pitch much quicker. Less than five minutes later it started to rain and the players never returned.More rain is forecast tomorrow and Hampshire could well escape this match with a draw but having been hoping for rain since mid-afternoon on day one, it will be with a heavy heart that they make the five hour drive to Chester-le-Street on Saturday.This pitch has been very slow, too slow to produce particularly intriguing cricket, and without the blanket of dark clouds under which they bowled on the first day, Somerset must have felt what it was like to bowl several overs in Hampshire’s shoes on day two as the hosts fought admirably against some accurate bowling.Unlike Somerset’s batsmen however, Hampshire’s were unable to convert strong starts into significant scores. All three of the wickets to fall were self-inflicted.Tom Alsop was the first to go when shortly before lunch he was caught at second slip having tried to cut a ball from Peter Trego that was too straight to do so to and angling in further still. Alsop’s wicket ended a stoic partnership of 89 – tellingly Hampshire’s best second-wicket stand of the season.That Alsop received a generous reception from Hampshire’s members for his 53 when he finally reached the pavilion, head bowed, bat hanging limply by his side and dragging along the turf, is perhaps emblematic of the club’s readjusted expectations. A good effort it was, but ultimately not good enough.After the interval Will Smith dragged on to Lewis Gregory and when Liam Dawson’s limp push outside off stump ended up in the hands of second slip there was a possibility Hampshire were not even going to beat the rain, let alone Somerset.After an hour of thick, miserly rain, with darkness enveloping the ground and puddles forming on the covers, the floodlights were unceremoniously switched off. Ten minutes after that, with the ground practically deserted but for a lone member of the ground staff, the PA system echoed around the stadium confirming to no one but the assembled press that play had been abandoned.And with that the lonely groundsman trudged across the outfield and disappeared into the bowels of the stadium, the only sound he left behind him was the gentle patter of rain on the covers as a melancholy day crept slowly towards its end.

A second day of rain prevented England U-19s’ bowlers from making significant headway in their efforts to force victory

ECB Reporters Network28-Jul-2016
ScorecardJosh Coughlin took two wickets on a shortened day•Getty Images

A second day of rain prevented England U-19s’ bowlers from making significant headway in their efforts to force victory. The Sri Lankans lost four wickets in a truncated day’s play – leaving a draw looking the likeliest result.Sri Lanka had started day three at Fenner’s on 96 for 2 with Charith Asalanka and Avishka Fernando looking to build on yesterday’s steady start at the crease.George Bartlett, who had complained of a knock to his hand during the warm-up, dropped a chance on 110 for 2, but quickly redeemed himself holding onto a low catch at short midwicket to dismiss Asalanka for 81 which included 12 boundaries.Durham pace bowler Josh Coughlin also made his first impact on the game dismissing Fernando for 45 giving George Hankins at second slip an easy catch.The afternoon session was lost to rain but after play resumed at 5pm Amar Virdi took his second wicket of the match – dismissing Shammu Ashan on 51.Sri Lankan keeper Navindu Vithanage was dispatched in the next over – Coughlin’s second wicket of the day – being caught one handed by an outstretched Pope.But bad light then intervened, forcing the players from the field again.Sri Lanka will resume tomorrow on 235 for 6.

Sam Hain was instrumental in Birmingham ending a run of three straight defeats and keeping alive their hopes of a quarter-final place in the NatWest Blast

ECB Reporters Network17-Jul-2016
ScorecardSam Hain continued his excellent limited-overs form•Getty Images

Birmingham put their NatWest t20 Blast campaign back on track after three straight defeats with a 28-run victory over Leicestershire at Edgbaston.The Bears’ 186 for four was built on an opening stand of 125 inside 13 overs by Sam Hain, who scored 79 off 52 deliveries, and Ian Bell, who made a 35-ball 57.While those two were together the Bears looked set to total over 200 but the Foxes, led by Clint McKay’s one for 16 off four overs, fought back well to leave a target around par on a good batting pitch.But though a string of Foxes batsmen got a start, none played the decisive innings the team needed as they fell short on 158 for nine.A Bears attack including Keith Barker for the first time in the competition this season kept taking wickets at important times to reassert their
qualification bid and extinguish the Foxes’.After the visitors won the toss, Hain and Bell began in measured fashion, with the latter still to score after two overs, before accelerating past 60 in the sixth over.The century partnership arrived in the 12th over, both openers having taken advantage of a short boundary to clear the ropes on the off-side.Hain was first to his half-century, from 36 balls, Bell’s following from 32, but the latter’s dismissal after striking four fours and four sixes in his 57, edging Rob Taylor behind, signalled a sharp drop in momentum.Bell’s wicket was quickly followed by that of Matt Wade, on his home debut, as the Australian fell lbw to his countryman McKay for five.When Hain sought another six – his third of the innings to go with nine fours – off Cameron Delport but found only the hands of Ben Raine at deep extra-cover, three wickets had fallen for 26 runs in 18 balls.Laurie Evans perished in similar fashion to Hain and although Rikki Clarke (24 not out) landed a couple of hefty blows, a skilful final over from McKay sent the Foxes into the mid-innings break in perky mood.The Foxes reply started briskly with Mark Cosgrove and Mark Pettini adding 36 in 27 balls before the latter pulled Oliver Hannon-Dalby to Jeetan Patel at deep mid-wicket.Delport’s 18-ball 20 included an audacious reverse-swept six off Josh Poysden but the South African perished attempting a repeat off Ateeq Javid.As the required run-rate rose, greater risks had to be taken. Cosgrove (42 from 29 balls) hoisted Patel to long off, Lewis Hill charged the same bowler, missed, and was adroitly stumped by Wade and when Farhaan Behardien lifted Clarke to long-off all that remained in the Foxes’ locker was some futile swishing.

Sri Lanka recovered from 26 for 5 on the first day against Australia in Colombo to reach 214 for 5 at stumps. Dhananjaya de Silva was the stand-out with his maiden Test century, compiled in an unbeaten 188-run stand with Dinesh Chandimal

The Report by Brydon Coverdale13-Aug-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal rescued Sri Lanka on a gripping first day in Colombo•AFP

Sri Lanka: 214 for 5. Hardly an inspiring score at stumps on the first day of a Test. Runs ground out, just a few wickets here and there, Australia probably on top. Nope. This was not the kind of day that can be judged from the closing score. It was a day on which Sri Lanka’s top order capitulated to be 26 for 5. A day on which Dhananjaya de Silva, in his third Test, led the recovery with a brilliant maiden century. And a day that ended with Sri Lanka in command.The runs came slowly, but at least they came. They came with patience, class, respect for good bowling and, yes, a little bit of luck. But the way de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal rebuilt this innings was, for fans of Test cricket, a thing of beauty. Australia’s batsmen could learn something from their approach. By stumps, de Silva was on 116 from 240 balls, Chandimal on 64 from 204, and their partnership was worth 188. They had undone all Australia’s morning work.The dry pitch turned from the first hour. Nathan Lyon picked up two wickets early, then like Jon Holland, bowled well without fortune as the day wore on. Sri Lanka’s three-man spin attack will pose Australia significant challenges. There was little swing, not as much reverse as in the previous two Tests. Australia picked four pace bowlers but used only three. All of the pace wickets came from Mitchell Starc, comfortably Australia’s best player of the series.If Australia’s batsmen have looked bewildered on this tour, the selectors appeared similarly baffled in Colombo. How else to account for shortening their batting order when runs have been their biggest problem? Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja were dropped, Shaun Marsh and Moises Henriques came in. Henriques, with a first-class batting average of 31, an average of 15 in the last Sheffield Shield season, and no first-class cricket since November, was listed at No.5. He did not bowl.The selectors believe Henriques bats well against spin. It is true that he scored 68 and 81 not out against India on Test debut in Chennai in 2013. But he failed to reach double figures in the rest of that tour, a series that also featured clouded selection policies. It remains to be seen how Henriques will handle Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera and Lakshan Sandakan, but his selection was a clear message to the incumbents: learn how to play spin, or you won’t play in Asia.Sri Lanka’s batting has also faltered often in this series, but always there has been someone to rescue them. In Pallekele it was Kusal Mendis with a remarkable maiden Test century in the second innings. In Galle it was Mendis again, with 86 after the score wobbled to 9 for 2 on the first morning. This time it was de Silva, who entered this series uncapped, and by stumps on day one in Colombo sat second only to Mendis on the series run tally.The precarious situation when de Silva walked to the crease cannot be forgotten: 26 for 5. Yes, the series was already won, but suddenly there appeared the very real prospect of Sri Lanka finishing with a humiliation: overhauling their lowest ever Test total, the 71 they scored against Pakistan in Kandy in 1994, seemed a distant goal. And indeed, when de Silva was given out caught at bat pad off Lyon for 5, disaster seemed likely.But de Silva knew he had not hit the ball – hadn’t even got close to it, really. He reviewed the decision of umpire S Ravi and was rightly reprieved and from then on – this was the 20th over of the morning – not a single wicket fell for the rest of the day. There were some nervy moments – Mitchell Marsh spilled a tough chance at gully when Chandimal was 11, two Australian reviews were struck down, de Silva was dropped by Shaun Marsh at cover on 104 – but the batsmen survived.De Silva attacked when given the chance and struck three fours in one over from Starc. He was strong when pulling and flicking off his pads, though his boundaries came all around the ground, including plenty through cover. His fifty came with a lofted boundary over cover off Mitchell Marsh, his hundred with another boundary cut off the legspin of Steven Smith. It took de Silva 209 deliveries to reach his century. It was a proper Test innings.Chandimal was even more circumspect, nudging singles and rotating the strike, playing the perfect foil to de Silva. His fifty came from 165 deliveries, and by stumps he had struck only four fours. Even more than de Silva he showed Australia’s batsmen how a challenging pitch can be handled: with the utmost patience. Chandimal himself had walked out at 24 for 4, a frenetic first hour bringing plenty of wickets.Sri Lanka’s openers continued their disastrous series, Kaushal Silva flashing at Starc and edging to slip for a 15-ball duck, and Dimuth Karunaratne bowled trying to drive Starc for 7 from 34 deliveries. Neither man has reached double figures even once in this campaign from five innings, Sri Lanka’s series triumph having come in spite of their insipid top order. What might they have achieved if the openers had found form too?Lyon was called on in the sixth over of the Test and immediately found some turn. In the 12th over he struck with a delivery that was fullish, quick and spun appreciably, and Kusal Perera managed only an edge to Smith at slip. Lyon claimed another wicket when Angelo Mathews top-edged a sweep and was caught at fine leg for 1.Then Mendis flashed hard at a Starc delivery that angled across him and Smith snapped up his third catch at slip for the morning. Mendis had been the key batsman in the first two Tests, and Australia thought his wicket was the big one. As it turned out, at least two big ones were still waiting to be taken at stumps.